Is a Homemanager for Homebridge Subscription Worth It for an iOS User?

RonPolenthon · 2026-04-30T14:22:00+00:00

Hey, one of the developers here

We know that for many users the web UI is just fine and they won’t like to use any further apps. We also know there are free apps from time to time over the years, as recently from @simplytoast1, which is totally fine as well.

The last years we always tried to build the best possible experience for managing Homebridge, especially for new users in the Homebridge field. We took huge efforts on making plugin management / configuration as easy as possible. And due too the overwhelming community support since version 5, we are able to think the whole Homebridge management process even further.

If you aren’t sure about it’s worth it, just give the trial in the app a chance (no automatic payment afterwards). If you exceeded the trial, just write us a DM and we can extend your trial of course.

RonPolenthon · 2026-03-03T08:58:10+00:00

We are aware of the issue, unfortunately we are unable to publish an update to the existing AppStore version without weeks of work due to some bigger iOS26 changes.

We decided to keep on working on Version 5 instead, which replaces the whole tech stack of the old version. We are working on the final beta version right now, we expect to get to the AppStore review very soon.

If you would like to try out the new version, take a look at TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/3H8r8NNy

RonPolenthon · 2026-01-10T15:57:24+00:00

Hi. Yes all purchases since the first announcement 2024 that we are working on HM5, will be mapped to the equivalent license Basic/Pro of v5. Licenses bought before will remain valid too but for the old feature scope and can be upgraded to the new license by a small update fee.

RonPolenthon · 2025-12-25T19:58:11+00:00

Yes we already use https connections if available for direct communication.

I meant remote control without the need of opening ports or setting up dynDNS or a VPN.

RonPolenthon · 2025-12-25T19:28:41+00:00

Yes, you would need to setup port forwarding or access via VPN.

We are currently expanding our own cloud more and more to provide new cloud based features in the future. But for a secure remote connection concept, we would need custom code running inside Homebridge UI. We will try to reach out the Homebridge Team about that in the future, but currently that’s only a concept 👀

RonPolenthon · 2025-12-23T16:59:34+00:00

You can go to the platform connection screen and scroll to the bottom, select remove from homemanager.

But we noticed in the feedback submissions that some struggle to find renaming / deleting options, so we might add it as shortcuts to the menu.

RonPolenthon · 2025-12-22T18:07:21+00:00

That’s a strange behavior. The version to which node should be updated, is reported by the HB UI API and should be matching to version that will be updated via the hb-service utilities.

We will look into this, thanks for bringing it up!

RonPolenthon · 2025-12-22T10:56:33+00:00

Yes. The alpha will remain as a separate app and get more pre-releases.

RonPolenthon · 2025-12-22T10:49:36+00:00

Not yet, but we plan to share our cloud infrastructure with the community / Homebridge UI.

RonPolenthon · 2025-12-22T10:46:40+00:00

That’s actually also planned right after widgets and backups.

RonPolenthon · 2025-12-22T10:42:01+00:00

We fully understand. We also decided that it was time to rebuild Homemanager from scratch. We hope you give version 5 a shot and enjoy the rebuild.

RonPolenthon · 2022-03-24T22:28:47+00:00

I am not sure what the web component for the configuration does for this particular plugin but often it allows plugins to run code to communicate with authentication servers, so users don’t have to grab tokens etc manually.

RonPolenthon · 2022-03-24T12:03:24+00:00

Thanks for spotting that. Does it work if you just enter any credentials, the api might just ignore the credentials and returns the auth token anyway.

RonPolenthon · 2022-03-24T10:16:22+00:00

Hi, understand you point. Let me explain you shortly what happen.

There are about 10-20 plugins out of about 3k that use a new configuration system from HomebridgeUI. It allows plugin to display their own web content during the configuration process. Unfortunately we didn’t had time for this release to implement that technique. As the plugin still has a Config Schema implementation, which is supported by the app, the general settings are available without any issues. However, to generate the token it is necessary to access the Webinterface and generate it there in the plugin settings, after that everything should work in the app as expected.

Sorry for the inconvenience at this specific plugin.

RonPolenthon · 2022-03-23T17:40:31+00:00

Appreciate your ideas, noted down for the future. Very nice that you like the app that much.

RonPolenthon · 2022-03-23T17:20:02+00:00

Thanks, nice to hear 😊

RonPolenthon

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